Eat Lightning, Shit Thunder

So yet another lp of yabbering tomfoolery enters the hallowed depths of my record collection. Woo woo. Everything and everything. Emo chaos in the style of Usurp Synapse mixed up with the Locust's Devo-grind, cheap Casio keyboards kerplonking in the distance, but not in such a sci-fi style as those crazy kids with the insect masks, more in the vein of a toned-down Tarot Bolero or something 80s and synthesised that I'd hear on the radio while my mother made gingerbread men and I watched Monkees reruns. Uh huh. Samples. Riffery that strays into the territory of what sounds like spandex-era heavy metal when it was all about Poison and having inflatable monsters on stage with you. Glass gargling vocals. The sound of wild dogs over circus music. Hipster language yanked from the 50s or 60s in the lyrics that maybe the Rye Coalition should be using. Some nice personal spiel from the vocalist on the lyric insert. One song sounds like it's going to be Autechre for a few beautiful seconds before the record stops and the arm of the record player makes its jerking journey back to the 'stop' position. Curious.

Pretty ok, depending on whether or not you're feeling jaded with the whole screamo-chaos thing which, admittedly, is getting kinda old. Still, this is pulled off with enough panache and variation to keep you hooked and playing the thing over and over. Major moan though is the fact that both sides sides feature the same songs, making the rational for releasing a 12" record kinda nonexistent. More effort or a smaller format next time perhaps?